These days, a driving license can cost up to 4,400 euros. The Baden-Württemberg Driving Instructors Association also sees responsibility for this in political decisions.
In the debate about rising costs for driving licenses, the Baden-Württemberg Driving Instructors Association has taken politicians to task – also with a view to expected further increases. According to an ADAC calculation, getting a driver’s license can now cost up to around 4,400 euros. Political decisions are partly responsible for this, as association boss Jochen Klima said, according to the previously distributed speech manuscript at a general meeting on Saturday in Pforzheim.
For example, extending the practical test to 55 minutes not only made the pure test costs at the TÜV and driving school more expensive, but the preparation also had to be more intensive. The mandatory use of the driver assistance systems in the car, which is included in the test, also requires additional training time.
Further cost increases are likely due to the planned reform
The Federal Ministry of Transport is working on a reform of the outdated driver training regulations. According to everything that is known, this will certainly lead to significantly higher costs for driving schools, explained Klima. “And of course the driving schools will not be able to afford this additional effort for free.” A further increase in costs is therefore foreseeable. It is the task of politicians to say this openly to the population today and not to complain about increased costs afterwards.
In addition, driving schools would have massive increases in costs, for example for vehicles, wages, rent and energy. “This inevitably led to increased training prices.” Solid, sustainable driving training is also an important contribution to road safety. Critics should not compare today’s costs and the number of driving lessons required to pass the test “in a nostalgic illusion” with the driving training they often completed decades ago, said Klima.
Should the automatic control be deleted?
In his view, one way to reduce costs would be to eliminate the automatic control without replacing it. “Switzerland has shown the way. Anyone who has taken the driving test in an automatic car can then also drive manual vehicles without further ado,” explained the association chairman. The number of accidents among new drivers when driving manual cars has not increased. This is an EU issue, but Transport Minister Winfried Hermann (Greens) should think about an initiative from Baden-Württemberg.
According to Tüv Süd, 43.5 percent of all applicants in the southwest failed the theory test last year, Klima attributed, among other things, to the fact that the number of test questions had risen sharply to around 1,300. Many more old questions should be sorted out here. In addition, reading and language comprehension continues to decline in parts of the population. “Therefore, urgent consideration should be given to changing the language in the questionnaire, which is sometimes very legalistic and difficult for many people to understand, towards so-called easy language.”
The head of the association also criticizes parents
Klima also sees parents as having a responsibility. They often misjudged their offspring’s preparations for the exam. “In addition, today’s learner drivers are driven everywhere by their parents from their early childhood. “That’s why they often have little active traffic experience as pedestrians or cyclists, which is important and useful for driving training,” said the head of the association. And anyone who sits in the back seat with their cell phone and not with what’s happening on the road has little experience as a passenger. “So they don’t register what speeds their parents are traveling at, whether mom and dad stop at stops, whether they let pedestrians waiting at the zebra crossing pass them, in short, how more or less exemplary their parents behave in traffic.”
Driving schools feel left alone because of cannabis legalization
According to Klima, the driving schools also felt left alone by politicians with regard to the partial legalization of cannabis. “Smoking weed is allowed, driving while stoned should be prevented, but it shouldn’t be banned either.” The colleagues rightly asked themselves how they should behave: “Send the supposedly stoned person home, even though he is clean, “It’s hard to avoid trouble with parents and arguments about paying for the missed driving lesson.” But if they let their student drive stoned, they would have to expect that they would be blamed for it during a check or after an accident, he explained. “The cannabis law is truly not a masterpiece of transport policy, but rather a disservice to road safety.”
2024-04-13 13:42:37
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